We Don't Have to Feel Alone

Chapter 1

A/N: "Italicized dialogue" = sign language

"You didn't just hire her because she's hot, did you?"

Chris facepalms.

Sitting in a tour bus almost felt foreign after taking a year off, but it felt so good to be on the road again after having taken some time off to deal with some family issues. However, as the band was regrouping and catching up with one another, there came many questions with how Chris was going to manage returning to touring-life after so many things in his life had changed this past year.

"No," Chris deadpans.

"Oh my God, you're gonna be one of those wealthy guys that has a young, hot nanny taking care of his kids," Ricky jokes.

"He already is that guy!" Vinny says.

"I told you guys, that's not why I hired her," Chris says.

He leans his elbows on the table, sitting across from Ricky. Everyone else on the bus was listening in on the conversation as well though, as Chris relayed to them how he'd come to pick the perfect person to care for his daughter while he was gone.

"Look, leaving Nova is not an easy thing for me, okay? Sariah was the most qualified out of everyone I talked to. She has a degree in child development, graduated summa cum laude, and she's worked as a live-in nanny for three other families, who all had nothing but great things to say about her."

"And the fact that she's deaf isn't gonna be an issue?" Ryan asks.

Justin raises his eyebrows, "She's deaf?"

"Yeah, but she has one of those cochlear implant things."

"That's not gonna totally fix her hearing though; it just kind of helps with sound," Ricky says.

"I know that," Chris says, "But if it wasn't an issue for the past three families she's worked for where she took care of multiple children, I doubt it'll be an issue for her taking care of one five year old girl."

"Okay, okay, but is she hot?" Vinny asks.

Chris pauses, "Well..."

x

One month prior.

Chris lay in bed, having just woken up only a few moments ago. He scrolled through his phone, trying to get thinking about what would lay ahead for the rest of the day. He decides to check his email to see if the final person he'd tried to get ahold of had gotten back to him, and to his delight, they had.

Hello, Mr. Cerulli,

Thanks so much for reaching out!

Chris continues to read through the email as his daughter sleeps soundly next to him. Ever since the accident nearly a year ago, Nova often had nightmares of the event and would often seek out Chris for solace. Chris was very affectionate with his daughter and understood that in her five-year-old mind, it was hard for her to understand most of what had happened; all she knew was that it terrified her. A couple of months ago, Chris had finally gotten Nova to start sleeping in her own bed again, and she'd actually done fairly well, but last night had had another nightmare and ended up crawling into bed with her dad at two in the morning. Chris didn't even question it.

Chris did want to try and break her out of this habit before he left for tour again though, unsure of how whatever nanny he picked would handle it. Having spent the last few months sifting through hundreds of people to try and find the perfect person to care for his daughter had been extremely difficult, but Chris finally did feel like he was starting to get somewhere, much to his relief as it was starting to get down to the wire.